Jackie Presser

Jackie Presser (August 6, 1926 – July 9, 1988) was an American labor leader and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1983 until his death in 1988.

He was closely connected to organized crime, and allegedly became president of the Teamsters based on the approval and support of the Cleveland Mafia.

Presser was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1926.

His grandfather, a Jewish emigrant from Austria, became a garment worker, and was active in and participated in several strikes led by various garment makers' unions in New York City.

Presser's father, William (Bill) Presser, was at the time of Jackie's birth a Teamster organizer.

The Pressers were very poor: Bill Presser stuffed newspapers into shoes to block holes in the uppers and strengthen worn-out soles.

The family often moved into an apartment at the beginning of the month and out again at the end of the month because the Pressers could not afford the rent.

Bill Presser was however a protege of Jimmy Hoffa and quickly rose within the local, regional and international Teamsters ranks.

He was elected president of the Ohio Conference of Teamsters and eventually a vice president of the international union.

Bill Presser was also intimately connected with the Cleveland mob.

Presser's childhood, by his own account, was a happy one.

However, he was deeply influenced by his family's poverty and the anti-semitic prejudice he often encountered.

Presser dropped out of school in the middle of the eighth grade.

Using his father's connections, he got a job delivering jukeboxes to local restaurants and bars.

Presser enlisted in the United States Navy in 1943 when he was 17, and served in World War II.

After the war, Presser returned to Cleveland and got a job as a truck driver for a vending machine company.

After a year as a truck driver, Presser was hired as a union organizer by Local 10, a Cleveland affiliate of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union.

In 1948, Presser was elected president of Local 10.

He merged his local with four other local unions in order to improve the workers' collective bargaining position.

He also began receiving a markedly larger salary, and spending large amounts of money on travel and automobiles.

He wore pinky rings and diamond bracelets, and became notorious for wearing loud, brightly colored sports jackets.

He also began to gain substantial amounts of weight, a health problem he would fight for the rest of his life.

In 1952, Presser lost re-election as union president after members became dissatisfied with his colorful and lavish lifestyle.

In 1952, Jackie Presser was hired as an organizer by the international Teamsters union and held a series of staff jobs for the next 12 years.

Presser's break came in 1964, when he and his father brokered a real estate deal in suburban Cleveland for a group of local investors (which included himself).

The investors built an upscale sports club and restaurant on the property secured by a $1.1 million loan from the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund.

The project went bankrupt, however, and the pension fund lost more than $265,000.

Presser also undertook a personal transformation at this time.

He stopped wearing flashy rings and loud clothing and began expressing a taste for expensive, conservative, tailored suits.

He also undertook a series of diets in an unsuccessful attempt to lose weight (he weighed close to 140 kg [300 pounds] for the rest of his life).

In 1966, Bill Presser gave his son Jackie a charter to form a new Teamsters local in Cleveland.

Jackie Presser organized 12 workers at a local paint company and established Local 507.

Presser hired a number of organizers, and Local 507 quickly organized 6,000 workers in dozens of plants and warehouses in the Cleveland area -— making Local 507 the largest Teamster local in the metropolitan area.

Bill and Jackie Presser were soon some of the most powerful men in the Teamsters union.

From 1972 until his death, he was also an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning Mafia influence in the Teamsters union.

By 1972, the father-son combination led the Ohio Conference of Teamsters.

Jackie Presser quickly helped make the Ohio Conference a model within the Teamsters for providing social services, engaging in union-member communications, and undertaking effective political activity.

Both Pressers were also trustees of the Teamster's Central States Pension Fund, one of the richest and most influential pension plans in the nation.

Jackie Presser was elected an international vice president of the Teamsters in 1976.

His father was forced to resign his vice presidency after he was convicted of extortion and obstruction of justice.